On July 20, the four US federal banking agencies issued a press release announcing that they had agreed on how to move forward with the implementation of the Basel II risk-based capital rules in the US. The new rules will offer two Basel II options to US banking institutions: the Basel II Advanced Approaches and the Basel II Standardized Approach. These alternatives will allow some institutions to move away from the existing Basel I risk-based capital framework. A previous proposal, known as Basel IA, has been discarded. The Basel II Standardized Approach, and is primarily taken from the Basel II capital standards framework that was issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in June 2006 is summarized. It is intended to provide a conceptual overview of the Basel II Standardized Approach, and does not attempt to include all of the details contained in the Basel II Capital Accord.

Regulation of financial institutions
Capital requirements